The invention relates to a new and distinct mutant plant of Lippia alba named xe2x80x98Bhurakshakxe2x80x99 characterized by its aroma has been developed. The plant possesses a novel aroma combining linalool, citral a and citral b as the major constituents in its oil.
The present invention relates to a new and distinct chemotype of Lippia alba, a member of the family Verbenaceae. The genus Lippia is known to consist of about 200 species of herbs, shrubs and small trees, widely distributed in tropical to semi-temperate areas of America, Africa and Asia. Materials in various forms and essential oils of Lippia species have been used in the traditional medicine and control of pest infestations in food grains. Specific strains are recognized as resources of several commercially important terpenoid compounds.
Certain Lippia alba wild populations and their cultivated clones have been reported to yield essential oils rich in linalool or terpenoids such as citral and cineole closely related to linalool (Terblanche and Kornelius, 1996. J. Essent. Oil. Res., 8: 471-485). A new chemotype is developed through mutation breeding which has all the four constituents in appreciable amounts to give a novel aroma, which can find wider usage in the cosmetic and soap industry.
The present invention provides a new and distinct mutant plant of Lippia alba called xe2x80x98Bhurakshakxe2x80x99, characterized by novel aroma of the oil constituting 7.2% 1,8 cineole, 42.3% linalool, 12.9% citral (b) and 14.2% citral (a) as a major terpenoids, and having a unique RAPD profile as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings.
The new chemotype of Lippia alba named xe2x80x98Bhurakshakxe2x80x99 has been developed through a planned mutation breeding program conducted at Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow with an aim to create genotypes with novel aroma suitable for cosmetic and soap industry. For this purpose, a spreading shrub variety xe2x80x98Kavachxe2x80x99 of Lippia alba which can be grown on waste land, ravines and slopes to check soil erosion, was selected for mutation breeding. A total of 17,700 single nodal stem cuttings were y-irradiated with different doses (1 kR to 5 kR) during July, 1999. Out of the 3641 surviving plants, 1360 were visually selected after smelling and hydrodistilled in clevenger""s apparatus during October 1999.
A plant with number CIMAP/L-640 possessing a novel aroma has been identified with 1,8 cineole (9.6%), linalool (41.7%), citral b (13.5%), and citral a (15.3%) in its essential oil as the major terpenoids. The GC on oil sample was performed using varian gas chromatograph model CX-3400 under the following conditions carrier gas hydrogen, injector and detector temperatures 220xc2x0 and 225xc2x0 C., respectively; capillary column (supelcovax-10, 30 mxc3x970.3 mm, film thickness 0.20 xcexcm); and oven temperature programmed from 80-150xc2x0 C. @ 5xc2x0 C./min., then 215xc2x0 C. @ 7xc2x0 C./min. The area percentage were obtained on Varian 4400 integrator. This selected plant was multiplied through stem cuttings during the first week of November, 1999. Out of the 14 plants, five randomly selected plants were hydrodistilled in the first week of February 2000 and analyzed for its oil constituents on Gas Chromatograph following similar conditions of GLC. The percentage of major terpenoids in the essential oil were similar to that of the parent mutant plant having 1,8 cineole 7.2%, linalool 42.3%, citral a 14.2% and citral b 12.9% confirming its true breeding behavior.
The mutant genotype L-640 has remained stable and uniform for its morphological characters and showed consistency in performance for its oil quality attributes during its evaluation and vegetative multiplication.
No variant had been found among the progeny during multiplication through vegetative multiplication.